The changes in Council leadership: What do they mean for us?
Written by Matt B · first published 13/12/2011
Our District Council here in Thanet has recently changed leadership from Conservative who have held the reigns longer than I have been blogging about the area to Labour who have long contested that they can do a better job.
In this article I will take an in depth look at the implications of the changes and what it might mean to long standing concerns, power and council attitude.
Certainly no one was willing to say that they thought that Labour had a chance of taking control of the council. The straw poll I took on the Thanet Star Facebook page suggested that most people saw the winners as the Independents which in a way was true.
If you hold true that men on our (Thanet) District Council hold any true power (as to, say, certain, shall we say, business men) then it would be safe to say that the most powerful men in Thanet may have changed.
Actually this is not true. The most powerful men in Thanet have simply let their strength be known. These men are of course Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Jack Cohen whose vote from among the Independents on our council first placed Cllr Bob Bayford in power and then removed him.
Cllr Bob Bayford for all that Cllr Clive Hart says about him being
Of course this might simply be a very astute move from the Independents to be sure that their power is respected. It was assumed that they would side with Labour for a change of leadership and yet they struck a deal to vote for Cllr Bob Bayford after the elections. One might argue that this was simply to let the Labour members know who was in charge when, as has happened, a change of leadership took place.
I am not saying that Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Jack Cohen were party to such tactical voting but I am not saying that they were not. What is clear is that Cllr Clive Hart's grip on power is subject to the opinion of two men who represent two thirds of the power in the Birchington South Ward.
Watch for the concerns raised in Birchington and especially the south of Birchington now that her councillors (Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Jack Cohen in case you were not paying attention) are the Thanet District Council King Makers. This is not without implications for John and Jack as Birchington Parish Council are likely to prevail upon them most heavily for issues that must be escalated up to Thanet District Council.
Here we see the first signs of Yellow in our political spectrum as Birchington Parish Council are a heavy mix of independent and Liberal Democrats including Bill Furness (Vice-Chair of Birchington Parish Council) who gave Sandra Hart such a run for her money at the Dane Valley by-election during the last political term.
Most of the other parish level council's as far as I can see are more heavily Conservative and so may have lost influence where Birchington has gained it. Margate being the only unparished area left of course continues to miss out.
Cliftonville West now has the leader of the council representing it which one can easily imagine may be good for the area. On the other hand one could also imagine that taking care oft he issues of Dreamland and the Port of Ramsgate might distract Clive from his home ward. Time will tell on this one although a certain ex-conservative from Dane Valley seemed to not manage his duties too well when made mayor of Margate.
The issue of parking in Margate might be subject to some joined up thinking as Cllr Iris Johnston will be keen to prove herself as she takes the Community Services portfolio. By this same stroke Iris is now the Councillor for Arts in Thanet as well as museums, licensing and land charges. I will leave it to you, the reader, to speculate what this means for the Turner Centre, for Thanet Caves (for which the conservatives sad there was no cash available), for our (closed) museums and for heritage in general. Comments at the bottom of the page.
With Cllr Michelle Fenner taking Partnerships and Tourism which includes IT services is this the time when we will see some revision of the planning application website (which is a dire example of IT services tot he public) and some review or improvement of the main Thanet Council website? If so then the winners here are the public.
After all Clive has told the world that he hopes to become a more listening council and that he wants
Cllr Alan Poole has taken planning enforcement and conservation in the change. I can imagine that he is already becoming firmly familiar with Michael Child who has a strong interest in planning and regularly blogs about some of the more stupid and questionable planning documentation.
While I've placed Alan under the section for losers in this change it is not because of the above mentioned blogger. The losers here are any developers whose ability to flaunt development regulations might have just evaporated.
One imagines that Cllr Alan Poole will be keen to show his stuff and there are a lot of issues that he can attack with plenty of gusto in order to show people what he's made of.
Of course he could attempt to just coast along but if he wants to show that Labour are better than Conservative he is going to want to show some muscle and the people on the receiving end are not likely to like it.
Also there was a certain Conservative who runs a building company and raised plenty of minor controversy with his attitude while building a certain house not so many years ago. If I were that Conservative I would worry just a little that my new Labour counterpart did not undertake an extensive review of me and my company.
I am not saying this will happen but I am not saying that it will not. Even so I am not holding my breath on this one. Your thoughts in the comments if you please.
The issue of the China Gateway I feel deserves a section all to itself. It would appear from what I have read that the developers invested a considerable amount of money courting the favour of the Conservative Leadership of our council and that leadership is no longer in charge.
That said almost all of the council of all parties voted in favour of the project despite public outcry. This of course having nothing at all, (honest guv), to do with Our Council having a financial stake in the success of the project.
The project itself is floundering with a lack of interest and a shrinking plan that no longer includes additional phases (as I understand).
Labour could well keep the China Gateway project in "development hell" forever or failing that for so long that they give up and go elsewhere. My general feeling given the Labour manifesto is that the odds for the China Gateway project amounting to anything are a touch remote.
How do you see things on this issue? Tell us in the comments below.
Cllr Clive Hart has already strongly opposed building houses on the Eurokent site and now he controls the council I can see those plans going the way of all flesh.
So what is the future of Westwood Cross and the Eurokent site now? Will the site be left as a future expansion site for Saga as Clive has suggested it should be?
After all as I published on Thanet News Network over £43,000 has been spent this year alone on consultations for the Eurokent site with a firm called Local Dialogue taking care of the business end of four poorly attended and almost unpromoted consultations on the subject.
One has to wonder if Clive intends to take a fresh look at the money being thrown at this project which many would simply say is a dead duck already. After all Clive Hart's aim for our council to be as
Right?
I leave you with one last thought. Cllr Rick Everitt a council member about whom I know very little has taken among other things "democratic services". There are two things that Rick could push for should he wish to make a name for himself one of which might be considered to be showing a lack of party loyalty.
Directly Elected Mayor. The chances of a cabinet member suggesting this when it might remove from power the man who put him in power seems unlikely.
Margate Parish Council. The chances of this being suggested when the party leadership is fighting a cash shortage might not go down too well. On the other hand Clive is looking to increase the amount of listening the council do. So who knows.
The real question is, however, how badly ham strung are the Labour Party by they reliance on the Thanet King Makers of Birchington South?
In this article I will take an in depth look at the implications of the changes and what it might mean to long standing concerns, power and council attitude.
Certainly no one was willing to say that they thought that Labour had a chance of taking control of the council. The straw poll I took on the Thanet Star Facebook page suggested that most people saw the winners as the Independents which in a way was true.
The Most Powerful Men in Thanet
If you hold true that men on our (Thanet) District Council hold any true power (as to, say, certain, shall we say, business men) then it would be safe to say that the most powerful men in Thanet may have changed.
Actually this is not true. The most powerful men in Thanet have simply let their strength be known. These men are of course Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Jack Cohen whose vote from among the Independents on our council first placed Cllr Bob Bayford in power and then removed him.
Cllr Bob Bayford for all that Cllr Clive Hart says about him being
exceptionally well respectedmissed the truth of his leadership. A leadership which in truth had always been in the hands of the independent councillors. I am not sure exactly what the Conservatives have done, if anything, to loose favour with the Thanet King Makers but loose it they have.
Of course this might simply be a very astute move from the Independents to be sure that their power is respected. It was assumed that they would side with Labour for a change of leadership and yet they struck a deal to vote for Cllr Bob Bayford after the elections. One might argue that this was simply to let the Labour members know who was in charge when, as has happened, a change of leadership took place.
I am not saying that Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Jack Cohen were party to such tactical voting but I am not saying that they were not. What is clear is that Cllr Clive Hart's grip on power is subject to the opinion of two men who represent two thirds of the power in the Birchington South Ward.
Liberal Democrat's Secret Power
Watch for the concerns raised in Birchington and especially the south of Birchington now that her councillors (Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Jack Cohen in case you were not paying attention) are the Thanet District Council King Makers. This is not without implications for John and Jack as Birchington Parish Council are likely to prevail upon them most heavily for issues that must be escalated up to Thanet District Council.
Here we see the first signs of Yellow in our political spectrum as Birchington Parish Council are a heavy mix of independent and Liberal Democrats including Bill Furness (Vice-Chair of Birchington Parish Council) who gave Sandra Hart such a run for her money at the Dane Valley by-election during the last political term.
Most of the other parish level council's as far as I can see are more heavily Conservative and so may have lost influence where Birchington has gained it. Margate being the only unparished area left of course continues to miss out.
Other Winners
Cliftonville West now has the leader of the council representing it which one can easily imagine may be good for the area. On the other hand one could also imagine that taking care oft he issues of Dreamland and the Port of Ramsgate might distract Clive from his home ward. Time will tell on this one although a certain ex-conservative from Dane Valley seemed to not manage his duties too well when made mayor of Margate.
The issue of parking in Margate might be subject to some joined up thinking as Cllr Iris Johnston will be keen to prove herself as she takes the Community Services portfolio. By this same stroke Iris is now the Councillor for Arts in Thanet as well as museums, licensing and land charges. I will leave it to you, the reader, to speculate what this means for the Turner Centre, for Thanet Caves (for which the conservatives sad there was no cash available), for our (closed) museums and for heritage in general. Comments at the bottom of the page.
With Cllr Michelle Fenner taking Partnerships and Tourism which includes IT services is this the time when we will see some revision of the planning application website (which is a dire example of IT services tot he public) and some review or improvement of the main Thanet Council website? If so then the winners here are the public.
After all Clive has told the world that he hopes to become a more listening council and that he wants
the council to be as transparent as possible. Cllr Michelle Fenner would have to be at the forefront of delivering this I think.
Biggest Losers
Cllr Alan Poole has taken planning enforcement and conservation in the change. I can imagine that he is already becoming firmly familiar with Michael Child who has a strong interest in planning and regularly blogs about some of the more stupid and questionable planning documentation.
While I've placed Alan under the section for losers in this change it is not because of the above mentioned blogger. The losers here are any developers whose ability to flaunt development regulations might have just evaporated.
One imagines that Cllr Alan Poole will be keen to show his stuff and there are a lot of issues that he can attack with plenty of gusto in order to show people what he's made of.
Of course he could attempt to just coast along but if he wants to show that Labour are better than Conservative he is going to want to show some muscle and the people on the receiving end are not likely to like it.
Also there was a certain Conservative who runs a building company and raised plenty of minor controversy with his attitude while building a certain house not so many years ago. If I were that Conservative I would worry just a little that my new Labour counterpart did not undertake an extensive review of me and my company.
I am not saying this will happen but I am not saying that it will not. Even so I am not holding my breath on this one. Your thoughts in the comments if you please.
China Gateway
The issue of the China Gateway I feel deserves a section all to itself. It would appear from what I have read that the developers invested a considerable amount of money courting the favour of the Conservative Leadership of our council and that leadership is no longer in charge.
That said almost all of the council of all parties voted in favour of the project despite public outcry. This of course having nothing at all, (honest guv), to do with Our Council having a financial stake in the success of the project.
The project itself is floundering with a lack of interest and a shrinking plan that no longer includes additional phases (as I understand).
Labour could well keep the China Gateway project in "development hell" forever or failing that for so long that they give up and go elsewhere. My general feeling given the Labour manifesto is that the odds for the China Gateway project amounting to anything are a touch remote.
How do you see things on this issue? Tell us in the comments below.
Westwood Cross Houses
Cllr Clive Hart has already strongly opposed building houses on the Eurokent site and now he controls the council I can see those plans going the way of all flesh.
So what is the future of Westwood Cross and the Eurokent site now? Will the site be left as a future expansion site for Saga as Clive has suggested it should be?
After all as I published on Thanet News Network over £43,000 has been spent this year alone on consultations for the Eurokent site with a firm called Local Dialogue taking care of the business end of four poorly attended and almost unpromoted consultations on the subject.
One has to wonder if Clive intends to take a fresh look at the money being thrown at this project which many would simply say is a dead duck already. After all Clive Hart's aim for our council to be as
transparent as possible in the decisions it takeswould require no less.
Right?
Closing Thoughts
I leave you with one last thought. Cllr Rick Everitt a council member about whom I know very little has taken among other things "democratic services". There are two things that Rick could push for should he wish to make a name for himself one of which might be considered to be showing a lack of party loyalty.
Directly Elected Mayor. The chances of a cabinet member suggesting this when it might remove from power the man who put him in power seems unlikely.
Margate Parish Council. The chances of this being suggested when the party leadership is fighting a cash shortage might not go down too well. On the other hand Clive is looking to increase the amount of listening the council do. So who knows.
The real question is, however, how badly ham strung are the Labour Party by they reliance on the Thanet King Makers of Birchington South?
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Anon wrote:
1. Have you anything to say about night flights and the future of Manston under Labour?
Even KCC leader and now master of all Paul Cater today has given up on Manston being a regional hub.
2. The East Kent Opportunities (EKO) LLP (TDC and KCC owned) holds land at Manston that I believe the China Gateway neede. Some of the director of this LLP came from the tory administration (eg Latchford) so how will the Labour change affect the aims of EKO